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A new serious tick related disease on the horizon

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bob_G

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A bird hunting buddy called to tell me about a new tick disease he heard about on the news.  It called the Powassan virus.

It's spread my deer ticks. No effective treatment, and according to medical authorities,  is fatal in 15% of cases. If that's not enough, it leaves 50% of it's victims with permanent neurologic damage.

As if lyme, anaplasmosis, and babeosis wasn't enough, now we have this to be concerned with, plus our dogs. 

The Sultan of Sluggo

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1 min ago, z-man said:

I think Powassan has been around for awhile. My son woke up a couple weeks ago with a deer tick in his arm. The pediatrician wasn’t going to do anything about it without symptoms or a bullseye. I mailed the tick to TickCheck and they tested it for Lyme and 5 or 6 other diseases. It was positive for Lyme so we told the doc to put him on antibiotics regardless of symptoms. Docs don’t take Lyme seriously even though it can mess you up for life. We had to pay and coordinate the tick testing ourselves. Now if we thought it was covid they would have had us rush to get him tested and it would have been paid for. WTF. 

Z,

Sorry about your son, hope he's ok.

This is the first I heard of Powassan. Maybe because I no longer have a dog, so ticks are sort of off my radar at the moment.

 

 

 

The Sultan of Sluggo

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6 mins ago, z-man said:

I think Powassan has been around for awhile. My son woke up a couple weeks ago with a deer tick in his arm. The pediatrician wasn’t going to do anything about it without symptoms or a bullseye. I mailed the tick to TickCheck and they tested it for Lyme and 5 or 6 other diseases. It was positive for Lyme so we told the doc to put him on antibiotics regardless of symptoms. Docs don’t take Lyme seriously even though it can mess you up for life. We had to pay and coordinate the tick testing ourselves. Now if we thought it was covid they would have had us rush to get him tested and it would have been paid for. WTF. 

Sorry to hear about z-man's kid.   Hope he's gonna be OK too.

That Powassan sounds nasty.

 

While I didn't find a deer tick on me today I did find a wood tick crawling on my 

calf this afternoon at the desk.....yup just surfing the net.

Smoked him with a magnify glass on the walk way.

 

 

 

"For our discussion of kayak angling is no trifling matter but is the way to conduct our lives, nobody untrained in fishing may enter my house."- Fly's Plato

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8 mins ago, bob_G said:

Z,

Sorry about your son, hope he's ok.

This is the first I heard of Powassan. Maybe because I no longer have a dog, so ticks are sort of off my radar at the moment.

 

 

 

He finished up two weeks of antibiotics and seems fine. Hopefully stays that way. I hate ticks more than anything. There seems to be more of those little bastards every year though. 

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A guy up here in Maine died from it this week, but it supposedly is rare. That said ticks are bad this year, I've pulled 2 off me and my wife has already been on doxy for one in her back. Driving to Mass yesterday I had a tick walk across my windshield, probably came in off the dog fishing. Problem with Powassen is there is no treatment. I've been bushwhacking into some brook trout water lately but thinking twice about it now...

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16 hours ago, z-man said:

I think Powassan has been around for awhile. My son woke up a couple weeks ago with a deer tick in his arm. The pediatrician wasn’t going to do anything about it without symptoms or a bullseye. I mailed the tick to TickCheck and they tested it for Lyme and 5 or 6 other diseases. It was positive for Lyme so we told the doc to put him on antibiotics regardless of symptoms. Docs don’t take Lyme seriously even though it can mess you up for life. We had to pay and coordinate the tick testing ourselves. Now if we thought it was covid they would have had us rush to get him tested and it would have been paid for. WTF. 

That is BS man sorry to hear that. My buddy had one on him and his doc got him antibiotics a couple days later without a problem. Your son’s doc sounds no good.

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8 hours ago, stormy monday said:

A guy up here in Maine died from it this week, but it supposedly is rare. That said ticks are bad this year, I've pulled 2 off me and my wife has already been on doxy for one in her back. Driving to Mass yesterday I had a tick walk across my windshield, probably came in off the dog fishing. Problem with Powassen is there is no treatment. I've been bushwhacking into some brook trout water lately but thinking twice about it now...

I'm sort of in the same boat with turkey hunting pending.  I get covered with deer ticks during turkey season. They're unavoidable.  

The Sultan of Sluggo

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2 hours ago, Running Ape said:

There are so many deer/ixodes ticks in my yard that I am making tick tubes with cotton and Permethrin on Saturday. Supposedly this is effective in reducing numbers as mice take the cotton into their nests killing the nymphs.

I spread out some of the store bought tick tubes on my property a few weeks ago. Not sure if they work but it’s worth a shot. It should help with the ticks on the mice but I still have a heard of deer, rabbits and squirrels in my yard everyday that I’m sure are spreading ticks too. I’m planning on spraying the whole yard with Cutter if I ever get a day that’s not either windy or raining. 

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